Game Plan 2020 - Q2 Plans

I like this Quarterly Planning thing...

I started writing this just after ToonCon 2020. the main event of 2020-Q1. With that over, I  turned to planning for Q2. But, wow, so much has changed since then... this has needed a bit of a rewrite!

Q1 is finished, and overall I'd say it's been a success!

Looking back at my Q1 Plan...

5x5 Quarterly Challenge - I'd planned to play the following games five times:

Necromunda
Wrath & Glory
Hellboy
Blackstone Fortress
Power Grid
(the last one wasn't entirely designed in the plan - it was a nebulous 'other game' that may or may not be a fourth game I was going to run at ToonCon and ended up being Power Grid Deluxe as John suggested I play in it to 'help out' with it at ToonCon)

What I've played...

Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress x10
Wrath &a Glory x6
Necromunda x5
Hellboy: The Board Game x5
Betrayal at Baldur's Gate x2
7 Wonders Duel (with Pantheon) x2
Patchwork x2
Power Grid Deluxe: Europe/North America x1
Power Grid x1
Terraforming Mars x 2
Viticulture Essential Edition x2
Railways of North America x1
Blend Off! x1
Firefly Fluxx x1
Kingdomino x1
Peptide: A Protein Building Game x1
Splendor x1
Virulence: An Infectious Card Game x1

Well, it's more than 25 games. I did complete Blackstone Fortress, Necromunda, Hellboy, and Wrath & Glory. Didn't quite get there with Power Grid... but I did end up playing a LOT of other games!

The February Gaming Weekend didn't happen, but the Wargaming Birthday Bash sure did:

The Return of Karloth Valois - Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash

THAT was a LOT of fun. I had started feeling like - rather than trying to host a skirmish game night once a week, I should try and put together something like that once a month (or every other month...?). Both of those ideas are on hold at the moment.

ToonCon - Check!

ToonCon 2020

40K - there wasn't really a PLAN, per se, to play any 40K - just noting that there might be tournaments coming up early in the year. They were coming. Not so sure now!

PAINTING - the plan was generally to focus on Blackstone Fortress, Hellboy, Necromunda, the Daemons of Chaos (and some other chaosy 40K stuff?)

I DID finish all the stuff from the Blackstone Fortress core set - so this alone makes it all a success!

I didn't really do ANY more Hellboy stuff - other than painting up the single Frog Monster I'd missed when I painted all the others and priming some of the doors and furniture - which was finally located!!!

So far this year I have painted 132 28m figure, but have somehow managed to acquire 132 as well!? (Mind you 40 of those were birthday gifts of stuff I didn't really need and probably won't be painting for sometime... so.. not my fault!). That breaks down to:

PAINTED

5x Khorne Flesh Hounds
10x Khorne Bloodletters
10x Slaanesh Daemonettes
5x Nurgle Plague Marines
5x Nurgle Plague Marines
1x Nurgle Plague Marine
9x Nurgle Plague Marines
2x Daemon Hedgehogs
1x Chaos Sorcerer
1x Chaos Lord in Terminator Armour
2x Chaos Space Marines
1x NOISE MARINE
5x NOISE MARINES
2x NOISE MARINES
1x Inquisitor
2x Imperial Fist Space Marine Scouts
2x Imperial Fist Space Marine Scouts
1x Tangermarine Space Marine Scouts
1x Imperial Guard Commissar
1x Daemonhost
3x Blackstone Fortress Characters (Draik and Rogue Psykers)
3x Blackstone Fortress Explorers (Locarno, Shadowguide, Gotfret de Montbard)
1x Blackstone Fortress Explorer (Dahyak Grekh, Kroot Mercenary)
1x Blackstone fortress Explorer (Pios Vorne)
4x Blackstone Fortress Explorers (Taddeus, UR-025, Rien and Raus)
4x Blackstone Fortress Spindle Drones
4x Blackstone Fortress Beastmen
14x Blackstone Fortress Traitor Guard
3x Blackstone Fortress Chaos Space Marines
4x Rogue Trader Glitchlings
4x Space Millipedes
3x Necromunda Scavvies
1x Necromunda Scavvy Champion
11x Necromunda Plague Zombies
1x Necromunda Giant Greenback Spider
1x Hellboy Frog Creature
1x Servoskull
1x Hive Scum
1x Ratling Bounty Hunter
1x Karanack, The Hound of Vengeance
1x Renegade Knight Acheron
1x Chaos Objective Marker

Acquired

1x Necromunda Scavvy
29x Nurgle Plague Marines
1x Nurgle Malignant Plaguecaster
3x Squats
4x Imperial Guard
1x Eldar Farseer
2x Space Marine Scout
8x Cultists of the Abyss
10x Chaos Cultists
18x Noize Marines
13x Chaos Space Marines (to be converted into Noise Marines!)
5x Chaos Space Marine Raptors
7x Chaos Terminators
1x Master of Possession (Start Collecting Chaos Space Marines)
2x Greater Possessed (Start Collecting Chaos Space Marines)
2x Obliterators (Start Collecting Chaos Space Marines)
10x Chaos Space Marines (Start Collecting Chaos Space Marines)
1x Chaos Space Marine (Servants of the Abyss)
1x Rogue Psyker (Servants of the Abyss)
2x Negavolt Cultists (Servants of the Abyss)
2x Chaos Beastmen (Servants of the Abyss)
2x Ur-Ghuls (Servants of the Abyss)
2x Spindle Drones (Servants of the Abyss)
7x Traitor Guardsmen (Servants of the Abyss)
1x Goblin Commissar
1x Inquisitor in Power Armour
1x Female Psyker
20x Ngoni Tribespeople (gift from John)
6x Plastic WW2 Germans  (gift from John)
6x Plastic Landsknechts  (gift from John)
10x Plastic Roman Legionaires  (gift from John)
3x Ogryn
1x Aerosan transport (to convert for use by Valhallans!)
1x Venomcrawler (Start Collecting Chaos Space Marines)
1x Tactical Command Table
2x Epic Ork Bone Krusha Tanks
2x Wee Ships  (gift from John)

More details can be found here:

2020 Painted versus Purchased

I would say, more or less, I have accomplished most of my Q1 goals for painting. I didn't complete All of the Daemons (still have 3 Bloodcrushers, 3 Fiends of Slaanesh, 5 Seekers of Slaanesh, and Infernal Enrapturess to finish up - they are all partly painted...) and I didn't make any movement on the Hellboy miniatures (and am a little worried that project has ground to a halt...). BUT Blackstone Fortress (core box) is all done and I'm fired up to get more done. I DID get some necromunda and other 40K stuff done. AND I didn't acquire more than I painted - and a good chunk were just given to me unexpectedly, another good chunk were things I picked up because they were on sale (but that's almost always my excuse for EVERY purchase!?) and I had some bonus cash, and a few more things were picked up specifically for upcoming events. None of these I expect to happen again in the next quarter, or likely all year....


Q2 PLAN

5x5 Quarterly Game Challenge

Again, this is just for me - not involving the family, or anyone else in particular. Given the state of things, these will likely either be largely solo games or with the family. Here is what I was thinking:

Wrath & Glory
Blackstone Fortress
40K
Other Skirmish Games
Five New Games!

The Wrath & Glory campaign was a lot of fun and, though Keira's dropped out, Amanda and Finnegan still seemed interested enough to carry on, but it kind of ground to a halt. I'd like to get this going again (and/or I might open the game up to others via some online platform - like Roll20?).

I'm really enjoying Blackstone Fortress right now. It'll probably just be me and Amanda going forward... but that's okay.

Warhamer 40,000 - I was thinking this would be easy - I was planning on playing four games of this at the Battleforce Recon tournament in April - so surely it shouldn't be THAT hard to get in ONE MORE GAME (as practice before hand?) at some point in the next three months! But... I don't know... I have a feeling Battleforce Recon might get cancelled - and if it doesn't, I'm not entirely sure if I'd even want to go!

"Other Skirmish Games" - Still loving Necromunda, but I'm hoping to get back to playing Kill Team as well. So "Other Skirmish Games" is Necromunda and Kill Team... but I might also include Hellboy, if I, or anyone else, suddenly felt the urge to try any of the other scenarios.

FIVE NEW GAMES - with the disposal of the record collection and reorganization of games onto the voided shelves in the living room, I noticed a LOT of games on those shelves that I haven't even played... like, EVER!? (and there are MORE than FIVE!). So my plan (Challenge!), in the next three months is to play FIVE of those games that I have bought but never played!

This might shift... I'll Definitely get in the Blackstone Fortress games... Not so sure about the 40K - especially considering we might be in lockdown for the next three months and all the games I play will have to be solo or with immediate family members, who have all gone off 40K for the moment - and board gaming in general. Amanda seems to be up for anything - she likes skirmish games.... 40K... less so... We shall see...


EVENTS

Given the COVID-19 pandemic, it is unlikely that I will be attending or hosting any events in Q2...

I HAVE been thinking about an online campaign again - like a few Hordes of the Things campaigns I ran a number of years ago - where the heads of state of each of the countries were not from Saskatoon and all the negotiating and turn planning and stuff was done through email. Then all the games were played locally - I'd host a game night once a week for local players to play out the games generated by the campaign. Though, those games would now just be solo games or played by me and Amanda and/or the kids... We shall see...

Battleforce Recon was supposed to be on Sunday, 26 April 2020. I am signed up and was planning on taking a force of Emperor's Children Chaos Space Marines - with a large component of NOISE MARINES... but I'm not so sure that's going to happen now... and even if it does... I'm not sure I'd even want to go!

Same thing goes for Battle of the Abyss Apocalypse event and Strange Bedfellows tournaments. Last year both of these happened in the first half of the year and I was hoping they might take place again this year.... at SOME point. But that seems unlikely now.

The Apocalypse Event seems to be on hiatus - not sure if it will even happen later this year, or at all... there was some discussion about locales and whether to use the new Apocalypse rules (not sure why that's even a discussion at all - the new rules are Amazing - I guess there was some concern that there weren't enough copies in circulation and there were a lot of grumps that had no interest in trying it out and, now, there has been moaning that GW isn't even supporting it anymore - though it does look like it's still available...?).

Strange Bedfellows? I'm not sure what I'd even do for this...? Not sure the kids would be interested in doing it again, so I'd have to find new Team Mates. I have no shortage of options for stuff I could field. If Amanda's around this year, she might join in with her Drukhari...? Have to wait and see if it even happens this year and when, I guess.


PAINTING

The first priority was to finish up the stuff I need for Battleforce Recon - about 15 more Noise Marines. I had originally planned to take a Daemon Prince, Sorcerer (SorcerESS, actually - according to the background I've been drafting up) and a Chaos Lord in Terminator armour along with all those Noise Marines... but since I've picked up the Start Collecting Chaos Space Marines Box, I think I might like to put together and paint up the Venomcrawler and take that instead... I'll have to juggle some points a bit... but I think I might be able to manage it!

Other than that...? I'd like to get back to work on the Daemons and finish up the stuff from the Wrath & Rapture Box as well as more stuff for the Chaos Space Marine force. It's all about CHAOS this year!

While I'm still stoked about it and wanting to play the game, I imagine I'll get some more stuff done for Blackstone Fortress - the Servants of the Abyss box - adding more of the basic Hostiles to the pool. After that there is the stuff from Escalation and the extra Cultists of the Abyss that I picked up. AT some point - though it may not be in Q2, I might pick up the Traitor Command and No Respite expansions and paint those up... but I think I'm going to wait until we've played through the first campaign (the Quest for the Hidden Vault) and see if we're still as interested... we still have Escalation and the Dreaded Ambull to play after that, so, no rush.

I would also like to get some more stuff for Necromunda painted. I still have Orlock, VanSaar, Goliath, and Ratsin gangs to paint - as well as a host of other random hive scum and characters I can paint up. I should pick one of those and say I'll get THAT done this Quarter. Maybe it should be the Goliaths - since House of Chains is now out.

Finally, I have a little Kill Team project I'm working on... It's a secret. I'm going to get that done.

Other stuff...? I've been feeling like I SHOULD get some stuff done so I can play Rebels and Patriots... but SHOULDs never work out... I'll back get to that at SOME point - no point in FORCING it!

the last couple of days I've been eyeing Fantasy and Mythical armies - some stuff that was earmarked (or already based for) Hordes of the Things and have been thinking about reorganizing/rebasing them for Dragon Rampant.

OTHER

The basement.

Yeah... that kind of needs to happen this quarter. ToonCon and my birthday bash are over. I promised I would start moving forward with the renos after that. So... not fun and only tangentially related to games... but that needs to happen, so I'm putting it here in The Plan.


Q3/Q4

I'm trying not to think or plan TOO far ahead - that's the POINT of these Quarterly plans.

Amanda and Keira were supposed to be off to Europe at the end of the summer for a couple weeks. I thought it might be fun for me and Finnegan to do something together while they're gone... could be something game-related...? But that's all up in the air now.

MINI-EVENTS - I had a great time running the Wargaming Birthday Bash and I'd like to do more games like that. I was thinking it wouldn't be too hard to do something like that on a monthly basis - there wasn't a LOT of painting or terrain making involved - I MOSTLY used stuff I already had. I feel like that's a thing I should get doing, but don't really have a solid plan for that yet (head still reeling from toonCon). Originally, I was going to commit here to doing at least ONE game like that in Q2 - But I think I might hold off on that for a while. Maybe start making plans for the fall...? or next winter...? Or whenever this Pandemic finishes its course!?

I was also originally considering running a game weekend later in the fall... but I'm not thinking that's really an option - at least not an IN PERSON one...



Anybody care to guess what I'll be doing in the Fourth Quarter of 2020? Your guess is as good as mine, at this point! Come on, leave a comment, let's here the wildest predictions you can think of!


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

March Games

MORE Blackstone Fortress

A Painting Update...? But I'm not sure of what?!

Perhaps some pics of some reorganized and rebased (and a few newly painted?) Fantasy and Mythological forces for Dragon Rampant (originally part of Hordes of the Things armies).